There have been examples in the art of quick-acting panel fasteners for releasably joining two panels in face-to-face relation by inserting the fastener through aligned holes in the panels and turning one of the elements of the fastener. These fasteners are sometimes referred to as “quarter-turn” panel fasteners. A top panel is first more or less permanently affixed to a retainer part of the fastener. Then, an actuator can be turned either by finger pressure or with a tool whereby an underlying second panel becomes secured to the back of top panel. Examples in the art of such fasteners include U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,431 issued to Armstrong et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,955,515 issued to Barina et al. A commercially available part which provides the above-described panel joinder capability is the D-Snap™ captive snap joinder fastener sold by DIRAK GMBH and Co. In an attempt to create lower cost yet effectively performing panel fasteners, metal stamped parts have been employed as shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,125 issued to Slobodecki et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,392 issued to Giuguliano. However, this technology is not known to have been successfully applied to quarter-turn panel fasteners.
While these attempts in the art to provide a quick-acting or quarter-turn panel fastener, they are very expensive parts to manufacture. There is no known quick-acting panel fastener having a retainer made from a unitary sheet metal stamping. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a quick-acting panel fastener which effectively and securely joins two panels face-to-face that is effective, economical to produce and easy to use.